Letters to the Editor – The Federal European Union ultimately decides:

Sir,

The Federal European Union ultimately decides Britain’s asylum policy, who we can and cannot admit. In January 2005 the then leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard, proposed policies for tougher immigration controls He proposed setting an annual limit on the number of asylum seekers allowed into Britain, Within hours of announcing these proposals the European Commission pointed out that no British Government could implement them. Friso Roscam Abbing, chief spokesman for the EU Justice Commissioner, and Franco Frattini, pointed out that the Federal European Union Qualifications Directive established a binding definition of who qualifies as a refugee, it had been adopted by the British Government and was to come into force in 2006.
Mr Abbing said, there is nothing in those protocols that allows a British government to opt back out again’’. He did not add nor would a Conservative Government be able to set quotas for the number of refugees accepted each year.

Say they set a quota of 10.000 a year well the 10,0001st case could say to a British judge your Government is bound by EU rules and is not at liberty not to consider my claim’ .

if a British Government contravened these rules the Commission would begin infringement proceedings’, to be followed, if infringement continued, by legal action in the Federal European Union Court of Justice, Luxembourg.

James Cole,

Name and address supplied.